Taken Down One by One
by JustThisOne
Summary: Someone is targeting members of NCIS and the team must track down the person responsible before more people are hurt.  Team fic but Eric/Nell undercurrent.
1. Chapter 1

It had been an awful week, the worse in recent memory. The whole team had spent more time at work than at home, chasing suspects, leads and any tip they could come across to find the missing Marines and the highly sensitive documents they had taken from their base. The agents, detective, and techies had been run ragged putting a stop to the Marines' plans for early retirement in a country with no extradition policy. The entire team was looking forward to a peaceful Friday night and a weekend resting.

In the bull pen, the goodbyes were quick. Sam was heading home after a quick stop at the grocery for the expensive ice cream his wife loved so much she hid it from the kids. Callen was planning on unwinding with a late night run. Nell was feeling health-conscious as well and set out for one of her gyms for a Spin class. Eric was already shooting the enemy in the video game playing in his head, soon to be playing on his TV. Deeks was busy scrolling through his phone, looking for a buddy (hopefully of the opposite sex) who was free for a game of pool and a long-overdue beer. Kensi was also headed to a bar- alone- to unwind and maybe meet a guy who was not a criminal. And their fearless leader went off to... wherever Hetty goes to. Nobody really knew but they all knew better than to ask.

At 2am, Eric's phone rang. "Hello? Do we need to come back please tell me no", he managed to grunt, still half asleep. "Come get me" the female voice on the other end said. Eric was pissed to be woken up by a wrong number after such a crappy week. "Yeah I don't know who you are but-" he was cut off by the woman again asking him to come get her, this time in a slightly more clear voice.

"Kensi? Is that you? Are you okay? Where are you" Eric asked, now in a panic. He knew it was Kensi and knew she must be in bad shape. Kensi would have called Deeks for help, never Eric. "Just come get me. I think I'm in an alley behind my bar…I…ughhh…"

Eric was now out of bed and fighting to pull on sweats, find some flip flops, and talk on the phone at the same time. He found his keys by the door and rushed to his car. "Okay Kensi, I'm on my way to you just stay on the phone and try to remember where you are. Do you know the name of the bar?" He could hear Kensi breathing and only got more concerned. He knew from her breathing and from how hard she was fighting to stay alert and focused that she was more than drunk. He had had enough experience with his mom's alcohol and drug addictions to know what a bad mix sounded like. "Poplar Street Bar", Kensi finally managed to mutter. Eric knew the place and promptly told Kensi he would be there in a few minutes.

At the bar, Eric quickly went out around back. He couldn't hear any other people on the phone, just Kensi breathing and asking him to hurry so he figured she was still in the alley. Eric rushed in to the alley calling Kensi's name. When he spotted her, his breathe caught in his throat. Kensi, who was like his sister and the agent he was most relaxed with, was slumped in a heap beside a Dumpster. She wasn't moving.

When Eric got to her, he grabbed her arm to shake her awake and Kensi screamed. She never screamed. Never. Not even when she had a gun to her head and no way out other than her partner's ability. Now fully terrified for his friend, Eric quickly said, "Easy Kensi, it's Eric. You asked me to come get you. Can you get up?" Kensi struggled to her feet as Eric tried to look at her and guess what pills had been added to her drink. As he helped Kensi stagger out of the alley, holding her up more than she was holding herself up, she stopped to puke. Now she was crying.

Eric knew that this was so out of character for Kensi, he decided right then to take her to the hospital for a drug test and to get her stomach pumped. He knew what combinations could be slept off and what needed professional help. He also decided not to tell her, knowing she would just argue and tell him to take her home.

In the car, driving, Kensi became more alert. "What's happening?", she slurred. Eric replied calmly, "You are in my car. You called me to come get you from a bar. I don't know what happened but everything will be okay. Do you remember what happened to you in the bar" Kensi tried to put her thoughts in order but they were so hazzy and random she wasn't sure of anything. She remembered a man she did not know was in the alley with her. She was between him and a wall. Kensi looked at Eric to make sure he was looking at the road and quickly slid he hand up her leg. She froze. She had no panties on.

In a barely audible, horrified voice Eric had never heard and would never forget, a now crying Kensi said, "I think I need to go to a hospital. I think I was raped."


	2. Chapter 2

Eric slowly processed what Kensi had said. While hard to imagine anyone getting the drop on Kensi, she was clearly not in a right frame of mind to know what was happening and how to react. So Eric did all he could do. He told her she would be okay and kept driving, reaching the hospital in a few minutes. Kensi remained silent, shaking with the effort of holding back more tears.

When there, Eric had to pull Kensi out of his car and walk her in side, she was so dazed she was actually compliant to being led like a child. When Eric had seated her, he quickly found a nurse and told her his friend needed a drug test and rape kit. The hospital staff set into motion and whisked Kensi away to an exam room, leaving Eric waiting, not sure of who to call, if anyone. A few hours later, at around 6am, a doctor came and told Eric that Kensi had needed to have her stomach pumped and was on fluids to push whatever drugs had been given to her out of her system. The rape exam had been done and Kensi was waiting in a room, to spend the rest of the day in observation for possible complications from the drug cocktail, which was still being analyzed. She was asking to see him.

Nervously, Eric went into Kensi's room. She woke up as he walked in. "What happened?" Eric didn't know what to say, he had thought she would remember. "Did you follow protocol?" Kensi asked, always on the job. At this, Eric began to shift uncomfortably. He had not called Hetty or Callen to inform them that a team member was temporarily out of commission, as protocol required. With such as high-stress and fast-moving line of work, the team was supposed to be instantly told when a team member would not be able to fulfill their duties for whatever reason. When a case came, there was no time to be tracking people down that were not potential victims or suspects.

"No. I didn't follow the protocol. I wanted to keep this…private…until I could talk to you." Kensi looked confused and then her expression hardened. "Tell me what happened and why I called you. Now. I can't remember anything after leaving work last night." Eric took a deep breath, sat lightly on the side of the bed beside Kensi, and told her as best he could. "You called me from a bar at 2am asking me to come get you. I found you alone in the alley around back. You were obviously drugged so I was bringing you here. In the car, you told me that you thought you had been raped so I asked the staff to do a kit and drug test. If you want me to call the team I will but I won't say why unless you want me to."

Kensi had a white knuckle grip on the bed sheets and was breathing slowly but heavily as Eric told her about her night. At the word 'raped' she had begun staring at the wall in front of her and was still boring a hole into the wall with her eyes as she asked if the rape kit and blood test results were back. "No. Not yet." Kensi thought for a moment and said, in a voice that sounded half dead, "Call Hetty and follow the protocol but do _not_ tell her or anyone else what happened. Understand?" Eric put his hand on hers, answered that he understood, and went into the hall to make the call.

Hetty responded quickly to what Eric said, though she was clearly angry that her computer tech, usually so compliant, refused to offer any details other than the name of the hospital and that Kensi was fine. Not sure what she would find, Hetty called Callen with the information, knowing he would call Sam and Nell. Then she made what she knew would be the hardest call. Deeks. Hetty knew how protective he was of Kensi and how strong their partnership really was beneath their differences in personality and style. She also knew how hurt Deeks would be that he had not been the one Kensi had called for help. Hetty silently said goodbye to her weekend as she drove to Kensi, hoping to assist her young agent in whatever way possible and to keep order in the rest of her troops, who were sure to be chomping at the bit to bring a sudden end to whomever had put Kensi in harm's way.

The team arrived at the hospital within minutes of each other and found Eric in the hallway outside of Kensi's room, refusing to say anything other than Kensi was okay and that she would explain later. Clearly aggravated by his determined resistance, Sam, Callen, and Deeks hammered Eric with questions and demands for details. Nell and Hetty looked ominously silent, each with their own thoughts about what might have happened to Kensi. While Nell looked distracted and nervous, Hetty's face showed only the quiet determination the team knew and feared.

Finally Deeks, overwhelmed with frustration and worry, stepped up to Eric and began to yell, "What gives you the right to not tell us what happened to MY partner? She is _my_ partner and I need to know what happened to I can go maim whoever put her here! You are not an agent or a cop, you are not one of us so spit it out- just man up and tell me what went on last night! What? Are you scared to tell us? Is that what it is because I swear to God I don't give a damn about what you want or why you are refusing to tell us what you did. I want an answer and I want it now!"

The rest of the team was shocked. Though Deeks had a temper behind his jovial charm, none of them ever thought Eric would be the target of that temper, especially not in this situation. Had Deeks been able to see himself, he would have seen his father's face and heard his father's voice as he yelled at Eric in the hallway. The only thing that separated the detective from his father was the regret Deeks felt as soon as he stopped talking and saw how his team was looking at him. He knew he had done wrong and taken his anger out on the person who deserved his thanks, but he did not- could not- care about that until he knew what happened to Kensi.

Callen was surprised at Eric. During Deeks's outburst, Callen saw Eric's face transform in a way he knew all too well, having done that same transition himself in the ugly foster homes. Once Deeks began to yell, Eric's face had immediately gone from shocked to blank. It was like a mask of temporary deafness and an emotional shutdown had occurred. His eyes were blank and his expression was one of emptiness. It set in by the third word Deeks said and was gone within seconds after the detective finished. For the first time, Callen knew Eric had been on the receiving end of a tirade and verbal punch to the heart. Had Callen been looking at the redheaded analyst, he would have noticed that Nell was as keenly aware in the change in Eric as Callen was.

Eric never responded to Deeks and the team was enveloped in an awkward and tense silence. Even Hetty had decided to stay out of it, knowing nothing she could say would improve the situation. After two hours that felt like twenty, the doctor walked towards them, nodded his head in greeting, and slipped into Kensi's room. He came out a few seconds later, looked at Eric, and motioned for him to come in the room with him. "She wants you here for this." the doctor said, which only made the team more concerned. But they waited outside just the same, too scared of Hetty to move so much as an inch.

In the room, Eric looked at Kensi and she motioned for him to sit beside her, in the space he had occupied when he had to tell her what had happened that morning. Kensi grabbed his hand but refused to look at him or the doctor, again holding her gaze on the wall. "Your results are back. The rape kit showed no signs of intercourse, consensual or otherwise." At this, both Eric and Kensi gave a sigh of relief that filled the room, and the doctor smiled as well before continuing. "The troubling this is that you were drugged. It was a dangerous combination of a generic but powerful painkiller and a roofie that was mixed with whatever drink you had at the bar. Your blood alcohol level was very low, so the symptoms you presented with were solely from the drugs. The good news is you will be fine, we just need to keep you on fluids for about twelve hours or so to make sure all the drugs are flushed from your system."

The doctor left the room, leaving Kensi with her arms wrapped around Eric in a vice-grip bear hug. Though the five pairs of eyes in the hallway could have terrified any suspect brought in for questioning, the doctor did not meet their gaze nor did he offer any clue as to what had gone on in the room. IN the room, out of earshot Eric said, "They are all outside, really worried about you and really mad at me." "Oh... Tell them to go home; I'm not ready to talk to them yet. Especially Deeks. Can you tell them the bare bones version for me... I just can't do it myself. I don't want to talk about it yet." Kensi looked pleadingly at Eric. He replied, "Of course. Just don't think for a second any of them are going anywhere." Both smiled at that, knowing it was true.

In the hallway, Eric quickly said, "Kensi called me from a bar early this morning, clearly drugged. I brought her here because she asked me to. She thought she had been raped but the kit came back negative. I didn't tell you because she asked me not to and I wanted to respect that. She wants us to go home and says she doesn't want to talk about it yet." The team was stunned. They had expected almost any reason except the one Eric had just provided. As Eric headed to the elevator he said, "I know you all are not going anywhere but I'm going home like she asked. Have her call me if she has any more questions. See you Monday." Still in disbelief the team said nothing but Nell quickly set off to follow Eric, as worried about her partner as she was about Kensi.

In the elevator, just the two of them looking forward at the closing stainless steel doors, Nell quietly asked, "How could you tell she had been drugged?" Eric tensed and Nell though he was not going to answer her when he quietly replied, "When I had a mom she was an alcoholic and a pill addict. You learn." Eric was grateful that Nell showed no sign of shock or made a comment about his revelation. She only reached her right hand out to his left hand and held it. Eric pressed his hand into hers and held on as tightly as he could, still not looking at her, until the doors opened on the ground floor. He then let go, and walked out of the elevator to go home and try to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The team stayed at the hospital until Kensi was released that evening. Sam and Callen were trying to focus on the state of their friend while trying to ease the awkwardness that had set in following Deeks's outburst and Eric's brief explanation and hasty exit. Deeks was silent, for once, embarrassed and ashamed. He hated the side of himself that was capable of that kind of meanness; hated bringing people down for no reason.

Nell's mind was racing, as usual. She was thinking about Kensi and about Deeks. Each had acted in a way she never expected and it threw her. For such a peppy and prepared person, she hated being surprised, especially by the people close to her. Which wheeled her train of thought back to Eric. She was totally puzzled. She knew Eric was…deeper than he appeared but was thrown a curve nonetheless by what he had told her in the privacy of the elevator. Knowing the confession was just for her, Nell thought to herself about what Eric had said, "_When I had a mom she was an alcoholic and a pill addict_." A statement that was straightforward, concise, and incomplete. Nell was also troubled because she thought she had seemed cold or distracted by not saying anything, holding his hand briefly instead. The worry stayed with her, hung over her like a cloud.

When Monday morning came and the team was gathered in the bullpen, Eric was not there. "Where's Eric? I wanted to talk to him. Is he in the ops room?" Kensi asked.

"No. I haven't seen him today. It's weird; he never beats me in, not even on Mondays." Nell answered.

Looking at Deeks pointedly, Sam remarked, "Maybe he took the day off. Probably trying to avoid being bitched out again."

Kensi looked from her partner to Sam and back again. "What does that mean?" When Deeks said nothing aand looked around to bullpen before settling his eyes on the floor, Kensi pressed, "What did you do?"

"He screamed at Eric a little in the hospital when we were waiting to hear about you. Said Eric should have called him instead of handling it." Callen answered for Deeks. Looking at her partner in disbelief, Kensi said nothing. To an outsider, it would seem she was silent due to being struck speechless. The team knew far better. They knew she was quiet because she was dangerously, violently angry.

The tense moment was interrupted by Hetty, who had been quietly observing her agents from her desk. Coming from the back of the group, she announced, "I will deal with 's tardiness when he arrives. Our work goes on." She pointed upstairs to the ops room and followed the team as they trooped upstairs.

As Nell ran through the briefing of a new case, Hetty's phone rang and she stepped outside, letting the doors shutter behind her, closing out the planning and questioning going on inside as her team worked out their course of action.

"Yes?" she answered. "Yeah, umm is this Hetty Lange?" a confused male voice she did not know asked her. "That depends upon who you are.", the diminutive woman replied curtly. "Oh. Right. My name is Chris Molliano. I'm a friend of Eric Beale's…he just woke up and wrote down your name and number…I have no idea why because he didn't say anything but-" Hetty swiftly interrupted, recognizing Chris as an emergency contact of Eric's. "What do you mean just woke up. Mr. Beale is late but he is perfectly capable of calling in himself."

There was a pause before Chris said quietly, "Actually he isn't capable. He was in a bad car accident Saturday morning and was unconscious until this morning. Who are you anyway? I've never heard him mention your name." Hetty only asked what hospital Eric was in, his condition, and told Chris she would be in touch before hanging up the phone.

Returning to the ops room, Hetty interrupted Sam and asked Nell to pull security cameras from the hospital parking garage where Kensi had been on Saturday. Now thoroughly confused at her boss's request and look of concerned intent, Nell did as she was told. Scrolling through the footage, Hetty suddenly said to stop. When the team looked at the screen, eager for an explanation, they saw Eric's car pulling out onto the street to go home.

The team looked at Hetty, silently begging for an answer. Indicating the screen, she answered their looks. "This is our case now. I just received a call from one Chris Molliano saying Eric was in a car accident Saturday morning. He's just been upgraded to stable condition. Given the close proximity in time to the assault on Ms. Blye, we will assume these events are related until we are certain otherwise. Miss Jones, I want to see traffic cameras and any and all other video of Eric's vehicle as he drove to his apartment."

Nell was typing and searching before Hetty had finished speaking and soon the team was looking at multiple views of Eric driving home. The agents and detectives knew when the crash would happen when they saw a view to an intersection where the second car ahead of Eric suddenly stopped, leaving Eric stuck in the intersection. The light was still green and as Eric went to drive around the backlogged vehicles, a large truck, the kind used to haul debris from construction sites, sped into the passenger side of Eric's car.

Though they knew it was coming, Sam, Kensi, Callen, Deeks, and Nell made a sound as they saw the windows in Eric's car being blown out from the force of the crash. The car rolled onto the driver's side, then on to its roof, before skidding to a stop. Glass and pieces of Eric's car were run over by the truck as it kept speeding through the intersection and down a side street with no cameras. Zooming in on the video, Nell quickly saw the truck had no license plates. Checking the LAPD database, she confirmed what the whole team had been thinking: the truck was stolen; Eric had been targeted.

Turning to her agents, Hetty gave her orders "Ms. Blye, Mr. Deeks, look into any aspect of Mr. Beale's personal life that may have caused this to happen. Mr. Callen and Mr. Hanna, investigate the assault on Ms. Blye to see how this may be connected. I want every person within earshot of that bar questioned and run through our system for priors. Miss Jones, I know this is Mr. Beale's specialty, but I want you looking through every scrap of footage you can find in connection to the accident Saturday or the theft of that truck. I will be at the hospital to check on Mr. Beale. One of us will be with him at all times until this is resolved."

As the agents filed out and Nell turned to her computer, her entire being set on tracking down who did this to her partner and friend, she heard Callen turn around to the people behind him. "Do you want one of us to inform his family or has it already been done" the senior agent asked his operations manager. Hetty paused for a moment and replied, "No need Mr. Callen, I'm certain Mr. Molliano has spread the word to Eric's friends." "I think G was talking about Eric's parents, Hetty." Sam said quietly, not wanting to get on Hetty's nerves. Looking at her team in the way that they knew meant she would not accept follow-up questions, Hetty stated, "Eric's friends are his family and will look after him very well, I'm sure."


	4. Chapter 4

The team set about their assigned tasks, trying as best they could to focus on the positive: Eric was alive and would be okay. They all knew, without saying, that the person or persons responsible would be tracked down and made to pay for what they had done to Kensi and Eric.

At the hospital, Hetty quickly found Eric's room and his friend Chris. "How is he doing?" Hetty asked, standing by Eric's bedside, one hand on his arm and her other hand touching the crown of his head in a motion that struck Chris as being very maternal, especially given that he had no idea who this mysterious woman was. "He was critical until the middle of the night but he was upgraded to stable when he began breathing on his own and they could take the tube out. He had internal bleeding, which took, like, six hours of surgery to fix. He has a collapsed lung, five broken ribs, a grade 3 concussion, sprained knee, dislocated shoulder, a badly broken arm, and cuts and bruises all over. Other than that, he's dandy." Chris replied warily. He did not trust this woman who seemed to know his longtime best friend so well.

Hetty prompted, "And when he woke up this morning…?"

"He woke up twice. The first time, he was able to nod and stuff when the doctor and I explained what had happened and where he was. The doctor had him do some easy stuff, like move his eyes and hands and feet before Eric nodded off. I don't think he was up to talking...Then he woke up a bit later and motioned for something to write with, which is how I got…" Chris trailed off; staring at the friend he had had since they shared a literature class freshman year of college. He had never seen Eric, or anyone he was close to, look like this. He and Eric's other close friends had been at the hospital in shifts for as long as visiting hours allowed since they had called area ERs in concern, not having heard from Eric in days. "So who are you? I know you aren't family and he works for himself so…?"

Hetty pulled out her NCIS badge and credentials and answered the concerned, bone-tired young man as best she could. "I am the operations manager for an office of agents and others working for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Eric works for me. For us. In the course of our initial investigation, we have determined the accident Eric was in was planned. One of my agents will be with Eric at all times until said perpetrator is identified and apprehended." Chris looked stunned. He looked from Hetty to Eric and back again. "What? He's never said anything. We all think…thought Eric was self-employed. I don't understand what this means."

Hetty had seen many people go through this scenario: they think their loved one has a normal, risk-free life, only to find out otherwise in a terrible situation that leaves more questions than any agent can answer. "The people who work in our office are not permitted to share their true identity with strangers nor their true occupation with those they love and trust. It is for the safety of both my agents and support team and their family that nobody knows. Somebody clearly found out about the work Eric does for NCIS and this is the result. I know this is hard but other than the fact Eric is not an agent, I can tell you nothing else. And Eric won't either so please spare him the trouble of dodging questions when he wakes up again." The look Hetty gave drove her point and her instructions home.

Soon, an agent came to the room and greeted Hetty. She introduced him to Chris and, after saying goodbye to a deeply sleeping Eric, took her leave to return to ops for updates and status reports.

Meanwhile at ops, Kensi and Deeks were in the bullpen, sifting through Eric's life. They hated the invasion of privacy of one of their own but it had to be done. They looked at his Facebook wall and messages, doing background searches on friends. They checked his credit and bank statements for any unusual balances or cash withdrawals or deposits. They even looked at old case files where the suspect may have seen Eric on the video conference screen in the boatshed. The agent and detective came up blank at every turn.

They decided to take a quick coffee break to regroup their thoughts and come up with more scenarios for the accident; why else it may have happened other than being connected to Kensi's attack. Kensi looked other to find her partner staring into space. "Deeks? What are you thinking?" she asked. Deeks took a moment before saying, still not looking at his partner, "I yelled at him. Told him he screwed up; told him he wasn't really one of us. Now this…I mean, he doesn't even _have_ anyone and I said he wasn't one of us…" he looked down at his desk, shaking his head.

Kensi thought for a moment. She was shocked Deeks had said something like that, even though he must have been worried about her, just as she had been worried about him when he was shot. "Deeks." He turned and looked at her, clearly upset. "This is not your fault and Eric knows you didn't mean it. When you see him, you can tell him yourself. And he knows he belongs here and that we all love him, even though we never say it. We all care about each other. That's why this is so hard." Deeks thought for a moment and nodded. She was right. The only thing they could do was follow every lead and find the son of a bitch that was attacking their team before anybody else was targeted.

At that moment, Sam and Callen came back. They had spent hours at the bar and had questioned the bartenders and got credit card receipts to track down who had been in the bar when Kensi was there. Surveillance video would have been ideal, but like most bars, the Poplar was struggling in the economy and the 'video cameras' were only for show. The only one that worked was above the cash register, which did the agents no good.

"You guys find anything?" Sam inquired. "Nothing" was the frustrated reply. "You?" Callen said as Sam went to refill his coffee, "We sent some credit card receipts to Nell. She's running them down. No video and nobody saw anything, though they do remember Kensi leaving with a guy, the bartender's descriptions don't match. So that's pretty damn useless." Callen was clearly frustrated by the lack of progress. He was also perturbed because he knew in his gut that this was not over. That the perp may have covered his tracks well enough that he might get to another one of the team before he was caught. Callen just hoped the bastard came for him. Sam had kids and a wife that were vulnerable civilians, and Nell was not a trained agent. Kensi had already been attacked and Deeks had been shot enough for one year. Callen had no family to worry over him. Then again, Eric evidently didn't either… Callen shook his head and looked his team. "I guess this just leaves…" "Nell" they all finished at once.

As the team had been chasing their own leads, Nell had been furiously typing and running every kind of search she could think of in as many combinations she could think of, hoping the work would stave off the tears she knew were going to come. She was actually shocked she had gone this long and not cried for her techie, though her cheeks were bright red and she was sniffling a lot with the effort of holding her emotions back.

The two were close. They shared in the frustration of sending their friends and agents out into the field, often with incomplete or old information, knowing that they were the lifeline that could make or break an op in the field. They quietly worried about their agents and breathed a sigh of relief when the danger had passed. The agents never knew half the work the two put in to ensuring their safety and the success of a mission. Nell had outlasted all other analysts and Eric had outlasted all other technical operators by a long shot. No analyst was grounded enough and no computer geek skilled enough for Hetty's high standards. Neither could believe Eric had done his job alone before Nell and neither wanted him to do it alone again. Even now, in her concern for Eric and anxiety over the rest of the team's safety, what Nell most wanted was Eric to be in ops with her, working beside her, helping her as she helped him. They were a team and a great one at that. And not having her teammate nearly put Nell past the edge of sanity, as the team found out when they entered the humming ops room.

"Well? What did you find? Need me to background a suspect?" Nell said rapidly, still typing so hard Deeks wondered how she hadn't broken the keyboard. "Nothing yet. Though Hetty has an agent with Eric and says he'll be okay but he's pretty well hurt." Sam answered. Nell spun around in her chair and fixed the four agents with a steady glare. "_Nothing_? You must be joking. How long have you been out? Did you take a surf break?" she pointed that last accusation at Deeks who stepped back in surprise before answering in the negative.

"How about you tell us what you've got." Callen said, hoping to pacify Nell quickly. Nell began to throw things up on the big screen. "I tracked down the police report for the theft of the truck. Pretty straightforward, no forensics report was submitted-the surveillance tape was gritty but showed the white male suspect was wearing gloves. Simple slim jim and hotwire job. The truck stayed out of traffic cams after about three minutes so Kaleidoscope was unable to locate it until this." Nell pulled up a video of an alley. The angle was bad and the distance did not allow for much zoom but it showed the truck in the alley, now without license plates, and two men. One resembled the man who stole the truck and the other person appeared to be a man, homeless judging from the clothes and unkempt look.

"Looks like a payoff." Callen said, studying the video as something was passed from the thief to the second man. Nell nodded. "And there's this." Nell pulled up a stoplight camera of the intersection where Eric's accident was and showed the car that caused traffic to stop. There was no blockage in the road to make the car stop when it did, which added to the proof that the accident was really an attack. When Nell zoomed in to the driver, the man was wearing a hat, pulled low over his face, and was looking to the side, checking the mirror to watch the accident happen, which further obscured his face. "Knows what he's doing. Knew we would check the footage from the accident. He's hiding on purpose to remove facial recognition as a tool. Not making this easy for us." Sam sighed while shaking his head.

Looking at Kensi, Nell quietly said, "I found footage of what happened to you Saturday morning. Quality's way off but it's something. Can I play it?" Kensi stiffened and then nodded. Her teammates were looking at her with concern and Deeks moved closer to her side as Nell started the footage. The team watched as a man pulled Kensi into the alley and pressed her to the outside wall of the bar. They watched as Kensi's arms pushed against him and her knee tried to get high enough to deliver a blow to his crotch. The team was silent as they watched the unknown man reach his hand up Kenis's dress and saw him toss something on the ground. Her panties.

Deeks stole a glance at Kensi and saw her hands clenched, back ramrod straight as she worked to keep her breathing steady. "Don't you dare ask if I'm okay." Kensi said so only Deeks could hear. So Deeks touched her hand before turning back to the screen where the man was pawing Kensi all over her body. Kensi managed to get her left hand to her clutch, which was held in her right hand. She worked at the latch and pulled out a small object and touched it to her assailant. He immediately jumped back and then slapped Kensi so hard she fell to the ground, where she stayed as he ran off away from the camera.

"You tased him? A little soft don't you think?" Sam asked Kensi. Callen also looked at her with a raised brow. "I would have shot him but my gun doesn't fit in that purse. It's the only one I have that matches that dress!" Kensi said indignantly. "Right. The point is you got away." Deeks said suddenly and stiffly, seeing for the first time the situation his partner had been in before calling Eric.

Nell put all the images they had of the mystery man up on the screen and said, "Looks like the same guy to me. Problem is there is not enough goods quality screen grabs of consistent angles to use facial so I'm using a program to clean the images and make the pixels match. I can then use another program to fill in the blank facial areas using the bone structure we have. It may only be an approximate image but we can use it." She then pulled up photos of all the men who had credit card receipts from the bar. "Anybody look familiar?" Kensi looked at the photos, eyes narrowed and forehead wrinkled. "I…I just can't remember any of it…I-" "It's okay Kens. Like Deeks said, you got away. We can break down all their doors if we have to." Call said.

There was a dinging sound from Nell's computer and she eagerly said, "The first facial program is done. Here we go. How about now?" The team studied the image of the man with black hair and dark eyes. Suddenly, Nell gasped. The team looked at her as she quickly put the new photo beside one of the images from the bar receipts and said, hardly breathing, "Is it just me or is this the same person?" Callen stepped forward, squinting at the screen. "Nice work! It is the same guy. Let's go."

As the team turned to leave, they were caught off guard as Nell gasped sharply then said from behind them, "I saw him at my house last night and again this morning a few corners away…I'm next."


	5. Chapter 5

Nell, normally steady and focused, was now shaking and muttering under her breath. She was already exhausted, even though it was not too late in the day. The stress and worry over Eric and the extensive search she had done to this point had run her down to the point she felt like she could drop and sleep for days. Now this. She was being hunted down like the rest of them.

The team had turned around and was back in ops, giving Nell reassurances for her safety that she never heard. Quickly, Sam went to check her car for explosives, Kensi updated Hetty in her office, and Deeks called LAPD to increase security at the hospital and put a unit on Nell's place. Callen called the agent who was guarding Eric to give him an update and email a photo of the suspect.

Regrouping, Nell pulled up information on the suspect. He was a Marine at the same base and in the same office as the Marines they had just tracked down for stealing documents with the intent to sell them to the highest bidder. "Could this guy…Sergeant Scott Chu…be part of the document case and we just missed it?" Kensi asked her lead agent. Callen though for a moment.

"We never knew for certain how they got the documents out of the secured area. We just assumed they hid them on their bodies because the place only had a metal detector and a person who signed Marines in and out of the room. Says in his file that Chu was the senior record keeper and did the inventory. If anyone knew what was missing, it would be this guy. Our Marines in custody must have offered him a cut to look the other way and falsify the inventory so nobody would know what was gone." Callen said with a tone of surprise. The team seldom missed these connections since they tracked down every lead and person in connection to the case. Chu had never come up because there was too much evidence for the Marines to cut a deal with the prosecution in order to get a reduced sentence. Chu had a squeaky clean record and was never brought up in the investigation.

"It fits with what we have." Sam agreed as Deeks and Kensi nodded. Nell remained silent, making the others nervous. She was not the quiet type. Callen said to her, "This doesn't change anything, Nell. He's a dirty Marine and we _will_ get him for this." Nell only nodded before saying, "There's no proof. Of any of it. The photo program is too new to hold up in court, even a military one. Kensi can't put him there for certain and neither can the bartenders. He's even dyed his hair, judging from the driver's license and security cams. Plus, we have no way of identifying the driver of the truck to confirm he was paid to run into Eric. There's no facial image on the video and the truck has not been found to dust for prints. All this guy did on camera was stop in traffic. We have no cause to bring him in, much less hold him on any charges." Nell sounded like she was about to cry, which she was, just not for the reason the team would have guessed. The man who harmed her friend was not going to pay for his actions.

The team was silent, trying in vain to think of a way around what Nell had just said. Suddenly, Nell said, "Let's set him up. At my house. Use me as bait then grab him." She said it as it had been divinely inspired. She felt it was the perfect plan; it would certainly meet the requirements for charging the guy. Even if they could not charge him for his part in the document theft, truck theft, assault on Kensi, or the attack on Eric, they could incarcerate him for attacking Nell. The team looked at Nell in disbelief and just as they started to object, offer themselves up instead, Hetty entered the room, causing them all to jump.

"Unfortunately, Miss Jones is correct. This…Sergeant Chu…has planned on attacking her next. He will not pursue Mr. Deeks, Agent Hanna, or Agent Callen until he has completed his plan for Miss Jones. He may not even know for certain who the rest of you are. You know the risks Miss Jones. If you are willing, we will set Chu up and catch him in the act. You will, of course, receive every measure of protection we can afford you." Nell nodded. "I need to do this. For Eric. For all of us. We have to get him before he gets us." Hetty gave a slight smile and said, "That is what we do, people. Form a plan and let me know. Miss Jones is qualified for a weapon, should you feel it necessary, Mr. Callen."

Call looked a bit surprised at this but nodded. The team quickly set up a plan. Chu had clearly been scouting Nell's place so they assumed he would strike there and do it soon, keeping the pace of his attacks fast so the team would have little time to recover and investigate between incidents. Nell would go home as usual that night and Sam and Callen would follow her home. Deeks and Kensi would be in place on Nell's street, a few houses down in a vacant apartment. Nell would be wired and have a gun. After tailing her home, Sam and G would sit on the house and wait. The idea was for Chu to break into Nell's place. How far it got once he was inside was up to Nell. When the team heard the distress word, they would run in and take Chu down. Nell was told to say the distress word, 'shadow' at the first sign of trouble. Even though she was armed, she was not a field agent and they were not risking her safety with a person who had already harmed two of their family.

Running through the plan so many times Nell thought she would remember it until her dying day, the team got final clearance from Hetty and got into place. Deeks and Kensi were already gone, setting up with infrared and cameras on Nell's house so Chu was on camera the whole time. Nell drove home and the guys followed her. All that was left to do was wait.

Several hours later, when Nell was lying in bed in total darkness, wide awake, Chu got out of his car and slowly made his way around to the back entrance of the apartment from the street behind. He was out of sight from the agents but they were put on alert when Nell suddenly said, "He's at the back door…no, he's using a window. I can hear him stepping in my kitchen sink. He just broke my glass and plate I had in there." Deeks said through the coms, "At least Kens isn't the only one who doesn't wash up after dinner. Oww!" Kensi socked him in the arm and hissed "Focus dammit!" Sam and G rolled their eyes in their car. Even Nell closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. Those two were always like this. If they didn't need to be within an arm's reach at all times, she and Eric would turn off their com line into ops when they really got into their bickering. While Kensi and Deeks were well loved by the techies, both grew sick of their exchanges and preferred the quiet so they could focus.

Nell got out of bed and walked out of her room. "Hello?" she called out. Suddenly she was slammed into the wall and felt a firm grip on her neck and an arm across her chest, holding her up off the floor. The man said nothing, just breathed heavily in her face. Nell could barely breathe and was kicking and clawing at the man, unable to get herself free. She was feeling herself lose consciousness as she gasped, "Why don't you come out of the shadows like a real man would?" As soon as they heard the variation of their distress word, Sam and Callen were out of their car, running to Nell's door, guns drawn. Deeks and Kensi were doing the same from their hideout spot.

Sam and G got to Nell's door first, kicked it open, screaming "Federal agents get on the ground! Do it now!" as they entered and saw Nell held against the wall. Sam grabbed the man as Callen turned on a light and went to Nell, who was shaking but unhurt. "Are you okay? Are you sure?", Called asked urgently as he wrapped Nell in a hug before passing her on to Kensi and Deeks, who had just entered the house and were looking at Nell with concern. He turned to the man Sam had on the floor in handcuffs, mask removed. "Hello Sergeant Chu. How have you been?" The captured man only grunted a "Piss off." before Sam dragged him out to the car.

Once they were certain Nell was unharmed, Sam and G headed off the boathouse to drop off Chu in the holding room, where he quickly confessed to the crimes against Kensi and Eric when he was presented with the evidence. His explanation was simple: NCIS had hunted down his business partners and shut down his only chance for a luxurious retirement. So he decided to hunt them down. He knew Kensi from when he saw her questioning a Marine, he saw Eric get her from the alley and assumed he was her partner, hence the car crash, which was quickly planned, as evidenced by the amount of security footage Nell was able to find. Haste makes waste. Finally, Chu had visited one of his partners in the brig and was told of a woman matching Nell's description. She had been on the video conference, offering an update and the now incarcerated Marine got her first name. Chu's position in records allowed him to track her down.

Smiling smugly, Chu said, "All this is off the record since my lawyer is not here to verify anything. Most of what you have on me are misdemeanors or low level felonies. I'll work a deal, get concurrent sentences. Ten years, max. With all the overcrowding, I'll be out I three." Sam looked at Chu squarely and said, "I hate smug. _Your_ lawyer may not be here but _ours_ is." Sam looked to the door as Deeks entered the interrogation room. "Hey there! So here's the thing: you didn't ask for a lawyer after we read you your rights so this little confession is, in fact, on the record. Seriously-we recorded it. And second thing: you committed crimes against known federal employees, one of whom was an agent. That's terrorism these days. You will rot in prison. Won't that be nice?" With that, Deeks and Sam left the room, handing Chu over to their booking officer, who would take Chu to jail for in-processing.

By the time the agents and Nell had finished their reports, it was Tuesday morning in the NSIC office, and the bullpen was golden in the morning sun. Walking to her team, Hetty said with a smile, "According to Mr. Beale's friends, Eric has made progress in the past 24 hours and is awake. I think he might like a visit." The team quickly got up and headed to their cars to go to the hospital. Nell beat them by five minutes, beating even Kensi.

Nell looked at Eric in disbelief, though she was smiling. Even though Eric was bruised and covered in small cuts from flying glass, left arm in a thick cast and sling, knee in a brace, his green eyes lit up when she walked in. "Hi Nell.", Eric said quietly, clearly happy through the exhaustion and pain. "Wait-_you're_ Nell?" the two friends with Eric asked. "Yep! Why?" Nell said, now a bit worried. What had Eric said about her? "Nothing", the two guys said at once, smiling at her, then at each other, then at Eric.

Looking at his pals, who were clearly enjoying this moment, Eric said, "Go away.", smiling as much as he could. The friends got up and each gave Nell a hug as they left, saying it was so _nice _to finally meet her, they had heard _so much_ about her. Eric said, "Out!" again as he tried to think of what to say to Nell to lessen the damage. Nell just looked at Eric, putting his hand in hers, smiling softly, in a way that make Eric feel like he could get up and walk out of the hospital with her right then.

Meeting her gaze, Eric said softly, "Will you stay?"

Nell just pulled a chair over to his bedside and sat in it, all the while holding on to his hand. "I'll be here for as long as you want me to be."


	6. Chapter 6

Eric and Nell's moment did not last long but the few seconds they had alone, looking tenderly at each other and smiling were savored. Just as Nell was about to say something to Eric, the rest of the team came through the door, seemingly all at once.

Kensi rushed to Eric, breaking his handhold with Nell and gave him the best hug she could manage while trying not to jostle his left side, where his arm was in a sturdy cast and sling. "Thank you for Saturday morning- for being such a sweetheart and gentleman about it. I'm sorry this happened to you. The guy-you know we got him, right?-probably thought you were my partner and targeted you for it." Eric was caught off guard by Kensi's rare show of affection and her bubbly thanks, which immediately made him uncomfortable in the now crowded room. "Oh…umm…yeah. Anytime. No problem-o Kens." He replied quickly, clearly not liking the attention.

Callen and Sam fist bumped Eric in turn, both saying they were glad he was okay and asked when he would get out of the hospital. "I keep asking but they won't say when I can go home. I mean, it's Tuesday and I've been here since Saturday so I think I want to go home now except every time I move fast, I almost puke or pass out." Deeks spoke for the first time since entering the room, "Yeah, that's the concussion talking, man."

The detective paused for a moment, shifting his weight and continued, "Look, Eric, buddy I owe you an apology for what I said in the hospital when Kensi was there, I was totally out of line and I shouldn't have taken it all out on you. I'm sorry." By the time Deeks was finished, he was looking at the floor, not wanting to meet the eyes of his teammates. Eric was stunned. Nobody had ever yelled at him and then felt bad about it before. He said, clearly surprised, "Oh. Yeah it's okay Deeks, really, not a problem. We're good. Not like I've never been yelled at before." Deeks looked obviously relieved and Callen filed this new piece of information about Eric away, something to ask Hetty about when they all went back to Ops.

The rest of the team also noted the comment Eric made but, like Callen, kept it to themselves. The team chatted for a few more minutes before the nurse who came to check the machines tracking and monitoring Eric's pulse and blood pressure began dropping hints about 'patients with these kinds of injuries needing their rest'. It wasn't until they caught Eric wince as he scooted himself further back on his bed and stifle a yawn seconds later that they decided to leave just as suddenly as they came bursting in.

As the team said their goodbyes and promised that at least one of them would be back the next day with smuggled junk food, Nell stayed seated. "Nell, you coming or are you going to stay here all night?", Sam asked jokingly as he noticed the analyst was still sitting by Eric, who was now blinking and rubbing his eyes in an effort to stay awake and alert.

"I'm going to stay here all night." Nell said with a smile as she turned back to Eric and put her hand back on his, where it belonged.

In the hallway, with Deeks and Kensi far enough ahead to be out of earshot, Callen indicated the room where Eric and Nell were and said to his partner, "I _told_ you Deeks and Kensi are not the only people with a thing…"

-The End-


End file.
